The Intentional Interim Staff Pastor

Eyes Wide Open: Full Knowledge and Acceptance

You accepted the position knowing that it would be temporary, and everyone in the church knows that you are filling the position temporarily. Because you are temporary everyone has three expectations of you.

First, maintain the “status quo.”

Status Quo is a Latin term that refers to the existing state or condition of things. Your first responsibility as interim staff pastor is to learn what things were like before you arrived. Interview the senior pastor and key ministry leaders. Develop a description of positive characteristics to continue and negative ones to avoid. Then, with the full knowledge and support of your leadership team, continue the positive ones. Usually, this will mean maintaining the same schedule, traditions, activities, events, and personnel.

When I was in this position, I discovered that the church received communion monthly. Whether or not I preferred to do it monthly was irrelevant. My duty was to continue the ministry as I received it. I also discovered that they had a preaching service every Sunday evening. Again, I might have preferred to use Sunday evening for a Pastor’s Bible study, or for an adult discipleship evening with multiple learning options, or for a home small group night. All of that would have been irrelevant to their situation at that time. The church needed their Sunday evening tradition to continue, so I preached an entirely new sermon every Sunday evening.

The people you are serving don’t want anything changed, only that you maintain everything as it is until your successor arrives.  They don’t want you to develop plans for the ministry that your successor won’t support. They may not welcome your opinion about the type of person they should hire to replace you.

If you fail to maintain things as they were, expect them to voice their disappointment. Privately, they will likely excuse your shortcomings as something they will have to tolerate only for a while before “messiah” comes— the new staff member who rides in on a white horse to save them from your perceived incompetence or mediocrity. Don’t take it personally. If they viewed you differently, they might discover your malleability in God’s hands and that you have the potential to be and do far more than they imagined. So, whatever you do, make every effort to maintain the status quo.

Second, do no harm.

Doing no harm means not offending anyone or hurting the ministry.

Do no harm to their memories: Your predecessor was likely loved and respected by some, if not many, people who are still loyal to him. They are grieving his loss. So honor his memory and speak well of him.

If your predecessor left under unfavorable circumstances, listen to people’s grievances without taking sides. Hear their complaints as a call for healing and hope. Their image of the church and of pastoral leaders has taken a beating. Some of them never thought that anything like this could happen in a church among Christians. Your task is to help rebuild their faith in God and to help them find hope for the future. The storm didn’t last forever. The calm waters that now carry them will fall. The Ark will soon come to rest on solid ground. Everyone who completes the journey will have an opportunity to begin again, having learned from the past.

Do no harm to their numbers: The people know instinctively that the ministry is in a tenuous position. Some may be fearful that people, their friends in the church, may leave. They want to keep everyone on the Ark with the hope of finding dry ground and a fresh start—along with everyone who started the journey (as unrealistic as that may be). Most people will stay on-board until your successor arrives, but a few people may jump ship along the way. This is demoralizing to your “passengers” when it happens. Help them understand that some attrition is normal now and even after your successor begins his ministry. Some people have counted the cost of the journey and don’t want to pay it, whether the cost is relational, emotional, spiritual, or financial. Their departure may affect donations to the ministry. Your mission is to minimize loss of members and income.

If you harm the ministry by speaking ill of your predecessor, or through dropping attendance levels or giving, expect people to harm you. They will be quick to assign blame and you are the most visible target. So, avoid making this a shooting match by doing no harm.

Third, prepare them for your successor.

This isn’t one of their expectations, but it is something that they may permit you to do. As the interim you are in a unique position to help the people in your circle of influence. They know you are temporary—and so do you. Use that to your advantage. You will be with them only a short time. Use that time to prepare them for your successor. You can help them discuss and process the departure of your predecessor. You can facilitate their self-discovery of things that led to his departure. What can they learn from that experience?

• Help them Reflect on the Past:
  • What will they miss about their predecessor? What won’t they miss?
  • Why did he leave and how has his departure affected the ministry and the church?
  • How did they contribute to his decision to leave?
  • Are they comfortable with this, or regretful?
  • What mistakes did they make, if any, and how can they avoid them with your replacement?

• Help them Heal in the Present:
  • Prayer
    • Invite them to pray for their prior staff pastor.
    • Ask them to pray for their new staff pastor.
    • Lead them in prayer during regular planning meetings.
  • Bible
    • Share encouraging scripture verses that help build their faith and help them develop a biblical perspective on the person who will staff this opening.
    • Preach or teach on topics related to faith, hope in periods of transition.
  • Retreat
    • Suggest that you have a retreat for the purpose of gathering for prayer to plead for God’s help.
    • Schedule this as a weekend away from the church, or as an on-campus retreat for a day.

• Help them find Hope for the Future:
  • Help them dream about the future in an effort to raise their level of anticipation for the new staff pastor and his ministry.
  • Talk to them about how their new pastor will be different form the previous one. As much as possible, take the shine off their idealistic dream and paint a real picture of what a pastor is like: Faults and foibles, strengths and weaknesses, talents and the lack of them. You’ll do him a favor, enabling him to get a better start.

Interim Ministry

“I’ve been serving a church as the interim youth pastor for almost 2.5 years now.  There have been some really good things during that time; bad things happened too.”

Many senior pastors have a high measure of self-confidence, a biblical understanding of church health and personal growth, and the ability to manage a staff effectively. Such pastors don’t hire staff members for interim positions. They hire people that they would enjoy working with, that will have a collegial relationship with other staff members, and that will have a productive ministry. They also hire people that they hope will stay on the staff a long time because they know that longer tenures contribute to church growth and health. If you are an interim staff pastor, you probably aren’t working for that kind of senior pastor.

Being an interim staff pastor means that you are in a uniquely transitory relationship with the senior pastor, other staff members, and the church. As such, you also have a unique opportunity to be a blessing to them all.

As a starting place, here’s a basic definition of “interim” as it relates to staff ministry:

An interim position is a brief period of temporary employment in which you replace a recently departed staff member and then later, within a few months or years, vacate the position for the permanent staff member who follows you.

There are three ways of going into this: 1) Eyes Wide Open, 2) Eyes Wide Shut, and 3) Eyes Tightly Shut.

Worst Staff Pastor Ever

Recently, I read a blog by a staff pastor whose perceived failure in ministry has left him wounded and disillusioned. His story deeply affected me and has prompted me to respond in several parts. In order to protect him from a potential barrage of advice, and from repercussions in the church he’s leaving, I’m withholding his name and URL. Excerpts from his blog are in quotes, followed by my responses. You may go directly to my responses with the following links:

• Part 1: Interim Ministry
  • The Intentional Interim Staff Pastor
  • The Unintentional Interim Staff Pastor
  • Interim Ministry During Pastoral Flux
• Part 2: Realistic Self-Assessment
• Part 3: Can’t Win for Losing
• Part 4: Delegation
• Part 5: Fruit and Faithfulness
• Part 6: Disappointment
• Part 7: No Self-Confidence, but Prayer

Loyalty: A Three-Part Tragedy (#3)

CONFLICT & RESOLUTION
[Please read Parts One and Two for the context of Part Three.]

Unfortunately, the senior pastor handled the situation poorly. He could have scheduled a meeting with the worship leader, invited her opinions about the Sunday worship services, and permitted her to make some changes in worship that might improve the congregation’s experience. He could have done this without divulging his knowledge of her intention to set-up a rival worship service. With the Sunday morning service suiting her vision for worship, the senior pastor would have “deflated” her plans for a mid-week competitor. If her vision were successful, nothing would have been lost. If it were unsuccessful, church members would have complained. He then could have helped the worship leader expand her song repertoire and knowledge of worship styles, or he could have helped her understand that God might have a church elsewhere that fits her worship style better.

Instead, the senior pastor confronted the worship leader in his office by accusing her of seditious plans against his authority. He invoked the name of the associate pastor. The meeting was contentious and loud. She disclosed this to the Sunday school teacher, who confronted the senior pastor in his office, and who invited the associate pastor to breakfast for the purpose of confronting him with his error. The associate pastor had, in the teacher’s opinion, a biblical obligation to keep the worship leader’s plans in confidence—especially with knowledge of the senior pastor’s unpopularity.

Within a few days, the senior pastor asked the popular worship leader to leave the church, contributing to dissension against his leadership. Within a year, he manipulated a narrow vote in favor of his continued employment by the church, and about half the congregation left to join other churches. In the absence of their tithe income, the senior pastor faced a budgetary crisis, so he asked the associate pastor to leave the church.

Questions
1) The associate pastor thought he could trust the senior pastor to handle the situation properly, but he was wrong. Given the outcome, should the associate have told the senior pastor what he knew of the worship leader’s plans, or should he have considered other courses of action?

2) What biblical principles and verses apply to the associate pastor’s situation?

3) What might have been the result(s) of the associate pastor’s silence? What biblical verses would support his non-intervention?

Question: Poor Timing?

NOTE: This worship leader raises an interesting question about what takes place on the worship stage.

I’m the worship leader for my church. This morning, while the senior pastor was welcoming everyone, one of the other pastors turned and asked me about a church business matter–in full view of the congregation. My heart was preparing for worship and my head was preparing to lead the worship team. I wasn’t prepared to discuss business twenty seconds before hitting my first chord. His question could have waited until after the worship service or until staff meeting tomorrow morning. Was I right in being bothered by his poor timing? Should I talk to him about it?

Loyalty: A Three-Part Tragedy (#2)

THE PLOT THICKENS
[Please read Part One for the context of Part Two.]

Within a few months of the associate’s arrival, the worship leader confided in him that she was planning on transitioning the mid-week choir rehearsal into a worship service without the senior pastor’s knowledge where, she whispered, “we can be free to worship the way the senior pastor won’t permit in the Sunday services.” This confession placed the new associate pastor in a difficult position.

The associate had moved his family a great distance to the new town and uprooting them again so soon would be difficult and potentially detrimental to his career. Furthermore, he had been hired by the senior pastor and not by the worship leader. He was professionally obligated to be loyal to the senior pastor, regardless of his sympathies with members of the congregation. By keeping the worship pastor’s plans in confidence, he was at risk of conspiring with her. He believed that his duty was to divulge what he knew of her intentions to the senior pastor.

Questions
1) Should the associate pastor be loyal to the senior pastor who hired him and who was his direct supervisor?

2) Should the associate pastor sympathize with the worship leader and other people in the church and be party to the senior pastor’s demise?

3) To whom could the associate pastor have turned for counsel?

Loyalty: A Three-Part Tragedy (#1)

SETTING THE STAGE

The dynamic church had a decades-long history of growth under the caring pastorate of a man who was also an inspiring preacher. The church had been settled into its new and larger facilities only a few short years when the aging pastor announced his retirement. Shortly afterward he moved to a far distant retirement community.

The new senior pastor was emotionally distant from church members and imposed new ideas without first winning people’s trust. His sermons were emotional displays and biblically shallow, rather than the more reserved and biblically insightful sermons of his predecessor. People made confidential comparisons between the beloved former pastor and his successor, in which the new pastor was always wanting. He was aware of some of the murmuring and feared the opposition would grow. As a consequence, he felt threatened by anyone whose leadership was respected and enjoyed by the congregation.

One of them, a Sunday school teacher, was a gifted Bible teacher and leader. He had attracted an enviable class of over one hundred people. It functioned as a small church within the larger church. The class had its own song leader, prayer team, fellowship activities, and class benevolence.

Another influential leader was the choir director. Her animated mannerisms and outgoing personality were a foil for the socially awkward senior pastor. Their conflicting vision for worship contributed to the undercurrent of tension between them.

The senior pastor soon felt a need for an associate pastor who could assist him with pastoral care and discipleship. The new associate was received warmly by people in the church who observed him to have a similarly compassionate heart and inspired teaching as the retired senior pastor.

Questions

1) There are five players here, the former senior pastor, the present senior pastor, the worship leader, the Sunday school teacher, and the new associate pastor. What was the senior pastor’s biggest mistake upon starting his ministry in this new church?

2) What could the senior pastor have done when he became aware of the murmuring against him?

3) What should the new associate have been wary of?